Europe Rail Travel Info?

September 29, 2005 1:01 PM

Europe Rail Travel Info?

I have found a ton of information on rail travel in Europe, but all of the timetables I have found are in other languages. I'm looking for a resource online that will give me an idea of how long a rail trip is between major cities, like Barcelona -> Paris, or Paris -> Amsterdam. Also, any anecdotes/advice about rail travel in Europe would be great. I will be traveling in the spring for 2 weeks in Portugal/Spain/France/Germany/Denmark. Money isn't an issue, so if there is no real benefit to train travel I would just fly. Information on that is welcome, too. Can you rail travel on a whim or is this something you have to reserve? Etc.

posted by pissfactory to travel & transportation (14 comments total)

Have you looked at Rail Europe?
posted by unccivil at 1:30 PM on September 29, 2005

You may find that flying is, in fact, cheaper. Try EasyJet and RyanAir (both have websites) for starters.

I took the train from Paris to Florence and I think it took about 11 hours. I did it overnight in a 4-person sleeper (bring your own food). Not the most comfortable, but not terrible, either, and you end up not wasting much waking time on travel. Yes, you do have to reserve, but not that far in advance, as I remember. Have fun!
posted by CiaoMela at 1:36 PM on September 29, 2005

This might help, I hope (from ricksteves.com)
posted by tristeza at 1:45 PM on September 29, 2005

Crap, linked wrong: here
posted by tristeza at 1:46 PM on September 29, 2005

Also mandatory for any trip leaving from, or going to France is the French Railways (SNCF) site.
posted by elgilito at 1:57 PM on September 29, 2005

Unless you're a dedicated train geek, or particularly interested in a certain, scenic route, I'd just fly - especially if you're just there for two weeks.

Train rides that come to mind as particularly beautiful were Barcelona to Valencia (much of the time riding right on the rocky Mediterranean coast), and Stockholm to Copenhagen (Sweden is teh pretty).
posted by AwkwardPause at 2:29 PM on September 29, 2005

A note on budget airlines like Ryan - many of them are not in the main airports, and can be a pain to get too time/money/logistics wise. Just more to think about.

Traveling by train in Europe is awesome. The countryside changes so frequently, and it is a wonderful kind of stress-free downtime. Everything is on time (well, on most of the continent), fairly clean, and quiet compared to US trains.

Most trains you can travel on a whim, though there are some routes that they recommend booking for. Definitely check Rick Steve's forums for information on that. Generally, if you want a sleeper, reserve it. Shorter trains are much easier to get onto. Reserving is not hard, so it isn't something to get stressed about either.

After looking at your route again - I remember Barcelona - Paris being hard to schedule, because the direct route only ran part of the year and the other route was too long, but this was a couple years ago. This might be a leg worth flying on.
posted by whatzit at 2:29 PM on September 29, 2005

By "shorter" above I meant shorter train rides, clearly. Eck. Also coming to mind is that if reservations are required on a route it is clearly indicated in the Eurail book. (If you buy a Eurail pass, or even look into one, before leaving the US, it will come with a handy paper book of train schedules for anywhere you would want to go.)
posted by whatzit at 2:32 PM on September 29, 2005

I'm kind of surprised no one mentioned the ridiculously extensive Deutsche Bahn website in English here, which not only has all schedules for every train in Europe, with a list of all stops, but also lets you purchase e-tickets of some sort if your trip starts/is wholly within Germany.

The Man in Seat 61 is a website with lots of info on what the insides of specific trains look like as well as schedules.

With two weeks, though, flying might be better. Ryanair and EasyJet are both based in the British Isles. Air Berlin is based in Germany and Vueling in Spain, so those might be more helpful. Happy travels.
posted by mdonley at 2:33 PM on September 29, 2005

Another vote for the Deutsche Bahn website. A useful page that lists (most of) the budget European airlines and the destinations served by them is at Eurapart.
posted by cbrody at 8:03 PM on September 29, 2005

There's a good summary of budget airlines at whichbudget.com, but if money isn't a problem and you want to fly then I'd recommend a traditional airline. I've flown on Ryanair before with no problems, but I wouldn't use them if I absolutely had to be somewhere (such as to catch a transatlantic flight) because they don't guarantee connections with other airlines (or even with themselves).

The main trains you will have to reserve are the TGV and high-speed trains. You'll have to look to see how far the TGV goes, but I think it's high speed to at least Nîmes; there should be plenty of trains from there to Barcelona. If you're going around Easter you'll also want to check the French school calendar, since TGV reservations will probably be necessary far in advance for certain days.

In my experience, high speed trains are nice for getting around, but they're really just like flying because you don't see much. The tracks are placed specifically to avoid cities and other interesting things. Southern France is nice to ride through, though.
posted by komilnefopa at 8:50 PM on September 29, 2005

I second the Deutsche Bahn website. Most of the sites for each country's railway have an English option.
posted by dripdripdrop at 9:26 PM on September 29, 2005

Whichbudget.com is a good list, but Skyscanner rocks as a starting point for finding cheap air tickets.
posted by romakimmy at 2:59 AM on September 30, 2005

Railfan Europe has links to the official timetables of every country in the EU, and then some. Almost all of the major ones have English versions of their sites. It just takes a little poking around to find the English link. Look for a little "En," or a British or American flag somewhere on the main timetable pages.
posted by jdunn_entropy at 12:33 PM on September 30, 2005